The Magic of Snow Days

On Sunday night it began to snow.  It snowed all night and Monday morning school was cancelled.  We got 7 inches of snow, the most we've had in 5 years!  My kids were all very excited to play in it. At 7:45 am they couldn't wait any longer and headed out to play.  Here they are in our backyard.

 Around 9am I joined them in the front yard and we made these snowmen. 

 They spent the rest of the day running up and down our street, throwing snowballs, and playing with neighbors that they haven't played with since the warm days of summer.

Our neighborhood was like a winter wonderland with so many fun new things to do.  My kids didn't even want to come in and watch TV, play on their phones or on the computer.  Emily got together with two friends from her homeroom class who live nearby.  They went sledding, drank hot chocolate and played games.

 It was fun to see so many creative snowmen in our neighborhood.  This neighbor painted eyes and other details on her snowmen. 

 Scott worked from home but did spent a little time outside shaking the snow off our tree branches so they wouldn't snap off. 

 Then on Tuesday we had another snow day because the roads were icy.  I took my kids to a steep nearby street and they sledded down it on the ice.  It was very fun.

 We took Megan's friend with us.

 Then we had fun sledding down our manmade hill in our front yard.

 Emily was able to take a walk in the snow with a friend and her dog.  We wrapped up our second snow day with decorating Valentines cookies.  Melissa's friend Maddie joined us. 

 My kids are very creative decorators.  The cookies were delicious.

Today I am thankful for
*a clothes dryer.  Our snow clothes kept getting soaked these last 2 days and I would put them all in the dryer for an hour and then my kids would put them back on and head out for more fun.
*My awesome Aunt Kathy who is taking Holly and her roommates out to dinner this week to celebrate Holly's birthday.
*the chance I had to attend my nephews wrestling match on Saturday with my parents (he won the match too!) and an awesome dance competition at our high school with my daughter Megan (25 high school dance teams performed in amazing costumes).

Winter Break

We've reached the end of winter break.  I dropped Holly off at the airport this morning so she can fly back to college, my other four kids are back at school, and Scott is back at work.  We had a wonderful break together as a family with lots of free time to play games, watch movies and relax.

We started out Christmas break with the live outdoor nativity performances by our church building’s youth which they put on for the community for two nights.  Emily participated on both nights in about 8 shows acting as a shepherd.  She always enjoys visiting with the other seminary aged kids backstage.  In this photo she is the shepherd on the far left.

She met us inside the church after the nativity for cookies and hot chocolate.  Doesn't she make a cute shepherd?

We had waited until Holly came back from college so she could make gingerbread houses with us.  The kids can make the houses on the their own now which is nice.

 Here are the five completed structures.

Holly decided to make a nativity scene rather than a house out of her graham crackers and it was really neat.

                            
Scott and I made toffee and then delivered it to friends.  Scott does a great job of continuously stirring the hot toffee for 12 minutes and then pouring it out on the cookie sheet at the just the right time.   We have made toffee together every year for the past 20 years.  I learned how to make it from my mom.  Thanks Mom!

The thing I was most nervous about over break was  Emily getting her wisdom teeth out.  Holly agreed to come with us and help me navigate there (it was an office 45 minutes away that I had never been to before) and then film Emily afterwards.  Our drive there and back was easy since there was less traffic than we expected and Emily did great with the surgery.  Holly did a nice job of filming Emily as she said some silly things.  Later that day Emily watched and even edited the video. For three days she had friends stopping by with gifts of flowers, pudding, and ice cream.  It was so sweet of them to come.  Emily continued to have some mouth pain for a week but after a follow-up visit to the surgeon and a clove oil treatment (which tastes very yucky) she is doing well.

We acted out the nativity as a family on Christmas Eve and then went over to my parents’ house for a fun game of Gesture's.

On Christmas day we had dinner at the Moulton’s house with all our Moulton relatives.  The older cousins really enjoyed having Holly there to visit with and hear about her experiences at BYU.  I snapped this cute pictures of my four girls together.  They really enjoyed spending time together over the break takes walks, going to the movie Mona, going shopping and having sleepovers.

After Christmas we took a day trip to my parent’s cabin to play in the snow.  The cabin had about 2 feet of snow and the sledding hill was working great.  Megan and Emily each brought a friend which made it even more fun.  This picture is of Megan with her friend Lucy.

 Today I am thankful that:
*We could have Holly home with us for 2 1/2 weeks.  We really missed her while she was at college.
*The sun was shining and the roads were clear when I took Holly to the airport. 
*I have this warm comfortable house to live in.  The heater keeps things at 70 degrees all the time which really is amazing!  I'm glad I don't have to chop wood and keep a fire blazing all day to be warm.

B.Y.U. Elves

Last year I found this cute picture of Elves on Pinterest and pinned it.  This year I saw it in my Christmas pinterest file and was inspired.  I would make Holly and her 3 BYU roommates into Elves. Nathan was sick at the beginning of November and since I was stuck at home with him I used that day to make the elves.

First I found a pattern from Pinterest.

I cut out the patterns, altering them a bit to look more like the elves in the first picture.

Then as I watched a Hallmark Christmas special I made the 4 Elves.  Hallmark movies and paper crafts are my favorite. :)

This is what my work area in front of the TV looked like.  Nathan spent his sick day watching lego and minecraft YouTube videos so he didn't mind that I was hogging the TV.

Once the elves were complete I gave them heads.  I cropped pictures of Holly and her roommates' heads and then enlarged them until they were the right size to fit the elves bodies.

They looked great until I realized that Holly couldn't high five her roommate (that she shares a bedroom with) and that Holly and her roommate had the same color of hats.

So I did some flipping of bodies and hats and then I was really happy with the finished product. Each girl is high fiving the girl that she shares a room with and they have different colored, hats, gloves and clothes.

I put the elves into a Christmas box that I mailed to Holly at the end of November.  She made a cute unboxing video when she opened the box and the next four pictures are from that.  First, she pulled out this file that said elf yourself and wondered what it was.

 She thought the elves were very funny.

 Here she is showing two of the Elves to the camera.

 She took this picture of the four elves together.

Holly told me that the elves are now hanging on the outside of their dorm doors and that everyone thinks they are fun.  I enjoyed making them and she likes them so I call that a success!
Today I am really thankful that:
*We got to attend baby Claire's blessing yesterday.  She is grandchild #19 for my parents.

 We had a great lunch afterward at my brother's house.

Fall at the Walker house

 I love decorating for the holidays and I love having visitors who come over and enjoy my decorations.  You can be my virtual visitor today. 

Here are the pumpkins and mums on my front porch.  I almost wish those pumpkins wouldn't be carved next week for Halloween. 

I decorated these glass jars a few years ago and we light them up on Halloween night for trick or treaters to see.

I'm very proud of my mantle and I love that it has twinkle lights.  Extra lights when it is dark outside always feels magical.

A few Halloween jelly stickers make our view into the backyard festive too.

Here are some haunted houses my kids have made.

 I even get to enjoy a little Halloween fun as I do the dishes each day.

 Finally, my Halloween picture wall in the kitchen.  Some are from past years and some are new.  Kids' art is my favorite.

 I even took a fun trip to the local pumpkin patch with my kids and my mom.  My mom took this picture for me.

 Other exciting things this month.  Emily got her YW in recognition award and here is a picture of her that night. 

 Emily went to the High School homecoming dance with her good friend Jeremy.  I love how he got suspenders to match her dress.

 A close up of beautiful Emily.

Nathan's baptism

In September Nathan got baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He had his baptism interview with the bishop on his 8^th birthday where he posed lots of thoughtful questions including could he wear goggles.  Nathan just learned to put his head under the water this summer but would only ever do so when he was wearing googles.  His sister Melissa had a pair of clear goggles so Nathan took those to the bishop interview so he could show them to him. The bishop told Nathan he could decide with his parents about the goggles.  Fortunately, a day or two after the interview it donned on me that if Nathan wore goggles his eyes wouldn’t get wet and so he wouldn’t be fully immersed.  I mentioned that to Nathan and he agreed with me and never brought up wearing goggles again.

Scott headed out first for the baptism so he could fill up the font, then I came with the kids.  The font was about ½ way filled up when we got there.  Nathan and Scott got dressed in their baptism clothing and posed for this picture before the guests arrived.

Bishop Beeson and his wife were the first to come, followed by my parents.  The Standages and Grandma Walker were next.  They had come from Michael’s soccer game so they had to change into their Sunday clothes in the church bathroom. Michael forgot his change of clothes so that's why he is wearing his blue soccer clothes in the picture. My kids posed with their Standage cousins.  We missed Holly being there but she is having fun at college in Utah.

It was so exciting to see Grandma Walker walk into the baptism room.  She had a big smile on her face.  This was the first baptism that she has been able to attend for our kids so it was wonderful to have her there.  She was staying with the Standages that week helping her daughter Laura recover from surgery and fortunately the baptism was scheduled for when she was in town.  I took this picture of Nathan with both of his Grandmas to remember how they were both there.

Bryce came with his family from Brian and Katie’s cross country meet as did Andrew and his family. My brother Barrett came with his 6 kids.  His wife stayed home with 3-day old baby Claire. My brother Derek came too.  It is a blessing to have so many loving and close by relatives that can come to things like this. :)

Bishop Beeson conducted and started out by saying he had known the Moulton family ever since his family moved to Washington 26 years ago.  I guess he and his wife are kind of like family too.  I played the opening song with only a few off notes. I wish Holly had been there to play the piano, she is much better than I am.  Grandma Walker gave the opening prayer and you could hear the happiness in her voice that she was able to be there.  Then Grandma Moulton gave a great baptism talk about how we are following Jesus when we are baptized and about the Holy Ghost. I felt like I was watching her in senior missionary mode.  She was very knowledgeable and confident. :)

After the talk it was time for the baptism.  Nathan got right up and headed to the font, he didn’t appear nervous at all.  All of Nathan’s little cousins came up to the font to watch the baptism.  Scott said the prayer and then Nathan went all the way under the water.  I was standing near the font stairs when Nathan came out of the water and handed a small white washcloth to Scott so Nathan could dry his eyes.  When I asked Nathan about the baptism later he said “the water was so warm, I wish I could have stayed in longer”.  

While Nathan and Scott got dried off and changed we each made a little note for Nathan to read later.  Sister Beeson played primary songs on the piano while we made the notes. Then Nathan was confirmed by Scott. After the blessing Nathan shook hands with all of the men in the circle.  The Bishop spoke for a few minutes and we sang the closing song and had a prayer by Grandpa Moulton.  Then we had the refreshments.  Scott had asked me to a buy one of those big mixed bags of candy from Costco.  Everyone enjoyed the candy.  We also had grapes, strawberries, Costco mini cinnamon rolls, and delicious peanut butter cookies made by Grandma Moulton.  This picture shows lots of good visiting and enjoying of the treats.

Nathan gave the treats two thumbs up.

Grandma Moulton made this cool CTR pillow for Nathan.

Me and my big boy.  I still can't believe he is already 8.

The Bishop took a group picture of us outside.  I love how one of my nephews refused to face forward.  My kids went through a phase like that too.

Andrew had brought bikes for his boys and so we all went to the mountain biking course in the park behind the church to watch them ride for a while.  It was a pretty cool course with lots of hills and all the other kids were wishing that had brought their bikes too.

The Sunday following Nathan's baptism we got to church early and the Bishop invited Nathan to go up to the stand with him.  Nathan was expecting this and happily went up.  It was cute to see him sitting there between the Bishop and his counselor, I wish I had gotten a picture.  After the opening song and prayer, he was welcomed into the ward as the newest member of the church. Congrats Nathan!

Today I am thankful that:
*Holly called us last night, we weren't expecting it, and it is always fun to hear from her.  Also we skyped on Sunday with her for the first time and got to meet her sweet roommate.
*I have lots of new conference talks to listen to as I drive from here to there.  I sure love our prophet, his counselors, and all the others who gave talks last weekend.  Their talks were just what I needed to hear.
*My first 4 days of subbing have gone well.  I am not nearly as nervous subbing this year as I was last year.  I have a renewed awe for first grade teachers as I have recently subbed in 3 different 1st grade classes.  The kids are at so many different levels academically, socially, and behaviorally.  

Just a note: For some reason blogger won't let me read your private blogs any more (even if I have a link).  So if you have a private blog I won't be reading it or commenting. I wish I could.  Luckily most of you are on Facebook or Instagram so I can keep up with you that way.